Tuesday, August 02, 2016

"Well, WikiLeaks has become the rebel library of Alexandria. It is the
single most significant collection of information that doesn’t exist
elsewhere, in a searchable, accessible, citable form, about how modern
institutions actually behave. And it’s gone on to set people free from
prison, where documents have been used in their court cases; hold the CIA
accountable for renditions programs; feed into election cycles, which
have resulted in the termination of, in some case—or contributed to the
termination of governments, in some cases, taken the heads of
intelligence agencies, ministers of defense and so on. So, you know, our
civilization can only be as good as our knowledge of what our
civilization is. We can’t possibly hope to reform that which we do not
understand.
So, those Hillary Clinton emails, they connect together with the
cables that we have published of Hillary Clinton, creating a rich
picture of how Hillary Clinton performs in office, but, more broadly,
how the U.S. Department of State operates. So, for example, the
disastrous, absolutely disastrous intervention in Libya, the destruction
of the Gaddafi government, which led to the occupation of ISIS
of large segments of that country, weapons flows going over to Syria,
being pushed by Hillary Clinton, into jihadists within Syria, including ISIS,
that’s there in those emails. There’s more than 1,700 emails in Hillary
Clinton’s collection, that we have released, just about Libya alone."

"The Clintons and their Foundation run the biggest futures market for
favors in the nation’s capital. There are people who have been holding
onto Clinton Favor Bonds for thirty years, waiting for them to mature.
Many were hoping they could call in or cash in favors from the Clintons
in 2008. That didn’t work out. Now, the Clintons owe even more people
and even more people owe the Clintons, and the only way for them to
settle this byzantine network of handshakes is for Hillary to become
president. If she had had to run against a low-energy guy like Jeb, she
would’ve mopped the floor with him. But this might not have been her
year to make that futures market worth anything."

"It’s worth repeating: there is no precedent in modern
history for such a mass display of disunity by elected delegates at a
national political convention as occurred this week in Philadelphia.
Hundreds of people elected at primaries and caucuses not only vacated
the Wells Fargo arena, they subsequently staged incendiary acts of civil
disobedience and stared down Pennsylvania State Police riot cops—all to
express the depth of their opposition to Hillary. Then, on Thursday,
swaths of delegates chanted, booed, jeered, and walked out on Hillary
during her nomination-acceptance speech. The closest analog may be the
infamous Democratic convention of 1968, which erupted into turmoil
mainly over the Vietnam War. But that turmoil mostly had to do with
external protests met with violence by Chicago police. These acts of
rebellion in Philadelphia were carried out by duly credentialed
delegates.

The lack of coverage the tumult received, despite its
historical significance, is indicative of a wider problem that Sanders
supporters have long identified: few members of the elite media are
sympathetic to the “Bernie or Bust” movement, which has resulted in
disproportionately little media attention. Conversely, the failed
#NeverTrump movement had countless devotees active in elite political,
media, and ancillary spheres, so it received outsized coverage relative
to the actual number of GOP voters who supported that position.
Furthermore, well-placed journalists tend to be fascinated by
conservative protest movements, but scornful and dismissive of left-wing
protest movements.

As a consequence of all this, perhaps there was no one proximate to
Hillary who could have conveyed to her the extent to which the activist
core of the Democratic party holds her in contempt. The ramifications
may become clearer to her in November."

"The Dawning of the Age of Non-Terrorist Terrorism" is smarter than "The Daily Daesh D-Day Dilemma", though the comment on Hollande's ridiculous 'retaliatory' murder spree in Syria is warranted. Also: "False Flags Fluttering in the Empire's Hot Air". There is definitely a strategy of tension as part of the organized Islamophobia.

"The New York Times’s Outrage at Trump’s Refusal to Demonize Russia" "Russia Expert Stephen Cohen: Trump Wants To Stop The New Cold War, But The American Media Just Doesn't Understand"

Greenwald on Trump:

"Trump comes from this ideological position of Charles Lindbergh, Father
Coughlin, America First, this Buchananite mindset. Buchanan is always an
advocate of not going to war with dictators, let’s get along with them,
let’s trade with them, let’s have them serve our interest. That’s why
[Pat] Buchanan was against the Iraq war and almost every other
intervention. So even though [Trump] is a clown and an idiot and
mentally unstable, there is this coherent philosophy that is
noninterventionist, isolationist, and uber-nationalistic. In that
context it makes sense that he admires Putin and wants to reduce the
level of tension between the United States and Russia."

"Renouncing Jewishness: Shlomo Sand and Gilad Atzmon". It is strikingly odd to read someone writing about Atzmon who treats Atzmon with respect.

"Well, WikiLeaks has become the rebel library of Alexandria. It is the
single most significant collection of information that doesn’t exist
elsewhere, in a searchable, accessible, citable form, about how modern
institutions actually behave. And it’s gone on to set people free from
prison, where documents have been used in their court cases; hold the CIA
accountable for renditions programs; feed into election cycles, which
have resulted in the termination of, in some case—or contributed to the
termination of governments, in some cases, taken the heads of
intelligence agencies, ministers of defense and so on. So, you know, our
civilization can only be as good as our knowledge of what our
civilization is. We can’t possibly hope to reform that which we do not
understand.
So, those Hillary Clinton emails, they connect together with the
cables that we have published of Hillary Clinton, creating a rich
picture of how Hillary Clinton performs in office, but, more broadly,
how the U.S. Department of State operates. So, for example, the
disastrous, absolutely disastrous intervention in Libya, the destruction
of the Gaddafi government, which led to the occupation of ISIS
of large segments of that country, weapons flows going over to Syria,
being pushed by Hillary Clinton, into jihadists within Syria, including ISIS,
that’s there in those emails. There’s more than 1,700 emails in Hillary
Clinton’s collection, that we have released, just about Libya alone."

"The Clintons and their Foundation run the biggest futures market for
favors in the nation’s capital. There are people who have been holding
onto Clinton Favor Bonds for thirty years, waiting for them to mature.
Many were hoping they could call in or cash in favors from the Clintons
in 2008. That didn’t work out. Now, the Clintons owe even more people
and even more people owe the Clintons, and the only way for them to
settle this byzantine network of handshakes is for Hillary to become
president. If she had had to run against a low-energy guy like Jeb, she
would’ve mopped the floor with him. But this might not have been her
year to make that futures market worth anything."

"It’s worth repeating: there is no precedent in modern
history for such a mass display of disunity by elected delegates at a
national political convention as occurred this week in Philadelphia.
Hundreds of people elected at primaries and caucuses not only vacated
the Wells Fargo arena, they subsequently staged incendiary acts of civil
disobedience and stared down Pennsylvania State Police riot cops—all to
express the depth of their opposition to Hillary. Then, on Thursday,
swaths of delegates chanted, booed, jeered, and walked out on Hillary
during her nomination-acceptance speech. The closest analog may be the
infamous Democratic convention of 1968, which erupted into turmoil
mainly over the Vietnam War. But that turmoil mostly had to do with
external protests met with violence by Chicago police. These acts of
rebellion in Philadelphia were carried out by duly credentialed
delegates.

The lack of coverage the tumult received, despite its
historical significance, is indicative of a wider problem that Sanders
supporters have long identified: few members of the elite media are
sympathetic to the “Bernie or Bust” movement, which has resulted in
disproportionately little media attention. Conversely, the failed
#NeverTrump movement had countless devotees active in elite political,
media, and ancillary spheres, so it received outsized coverage relative
to the actual number of GOP voters who supported that position.
Furthermore, well-placed journalists tend to be fascinated by
conservative protest movements, but scornful and dismissive of left-wing
protest movements.

As a consequence of all this, perhaps there was no one proximate to
Hillary who could have conveyed to her the extent to which the activist
core of the Democratic party holds her in contempt. The ramifications
may become clearer to her in November."

"The Dawning of the Age of Non-Terrorist Terrorism" is smarter than "The Daily Daesh D-Day Dilemma", though the comment on Hollande's ridiculous 'retaliatory' murder spree in Syria is warranted. Also: "False Flags Fluttering in the Empire's Hot Air". There is definitely a strategy of tension as part of the organized Islamophobia.

"The New York Times’s Outrage at Trump’s Refusal to Demonize Russia" "Russia Expert Stephen Cohen: Trump Wants To Stop The New Cold War, But The American Media Just Doesn't Understand"

Greenwald on Trump:

"Trump comes from this ideological position of Charles Lindbergh, Father
Coughlin, America First, this Buchananite mindset. Buchanan is always an
advocate of not going to war with dictators, let’s get along with them,
let’s trade with them, let’s have them serve our interest. That’s why
[Pat] Buchanan was against the Iraq war and almost every other
intervention. So even though [Trump] is a clown and an idiot and
mentally unstable, there is this coherent philosophy that is
noninterventionist, isolationist, and uber-nationalistic. In that
context it makes sense that he admires Putin and wants to reduce the
level of tension between the United States and Russia."

"Renouncing Jewishness: Shlomo Sand and Gilad Atzmon". It is strikingly odd to read someone writing about Atzmon who treats Atzmon with respect.